On the right Trax

>> Nordic Trax head Luke McKeehan lays out the plan from Van

by KRISTA

"There's never enough good stuff, but it's hard. What we're all into has gotten so saturated that it just isn't as good as it used to be, not to us." Luke McKeehan, head of Vancouver-based tech-house label Nordic Trax, is waxing philosophic from his loft in Van-city's trendy Gas Town district, and he's well primed after spending a pensive, rainy afternoon in the park with his dog.

"The sheer volume--it's kind of like the way professional sports has become. There are too many teams and fewer great players, so everything is watered down and less exciting."

A marvelous analogy, and right on the money. Not only is it getting harder to find the good music that is out there, it also getting harder for those making the good music to get it out there and well represented. McKeehan and his Nordic Trax label know this well.

"It's always a battle, keeping on top, keeping the machine going forward," he admits. "We have had to pare down a lot, and now we do everything ourselves. Like, Gavin (Froome) is our main artist, but he also maintains the Web site and other little things on top of making tunes."

Gavin Froome, Nordic Trax golden boy, is the label's main area of focus right now. Once a member of '90s prog-rock semi-sensation Pull, Froome decided that the glamorous life of rock 'n' roll just wasn't for him and left it all behind for a quiet career in the kiddie-control business.

"When Gavin and I hooked up he was working at a daycare center. He wasn't into any scene, he was just noodling around with tracks. He started coming down to (Van after-hour club) Sonar to hear me mix and hanging out with me at other gigs and stuff and I guess it inspired him to a certain extent in terms the sound he started to produce. He has that songwriter's touch--a great talent for structuring tunes."

It's Gavin Froome's latest full-length album for the label, Post & Beam, that Luke plans to use to help spread the Nordic Trax name around a little more. "We want to work off the back of Gavin's CD a little. We've sold records around the world, but we haven't gotten out there. Up until now we've all been locked down in Van with other projects, and now we finally have a patch of opportunity to get out there and raise the profile of the label."

The Nordic Trax crew have been fortunate enough to be featured more than once in some of the U.K.'s major scene mags like DJ, Muzik and Level over the past few years. Not to discount any of the rich talent associated with the label's roster, but when the label head is also the guy in charge of booking DJs at Vancouver's only underground after-hour club, it's only natural that a few of the right connections are being made.

"Vancouver may not be the media center that Montreal or Toronto is," McKeehan admits, "but Van is a city a lot of artists want to visit--there's some kind of mystique here. So we've been able to have a lot of big names in the industry come through here just because they really wanted to hang in Van."

Froome & McKeehan are at Jingxi on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 26-27, 10pm, $8

Great MEGspectations

>> More MEG stuff to check out

Digital Bled: Joao Pedro Veloso Rodrigues may not be a particularly Arabic-sounding name, but Parisian DJ Pedro's got the North African break-dub grooves down pat. He's spinning at Sonic tonight, Thursday, Oct. 25, and playing live at Club Soda on Oct. 26.



Bacuzzi: Now Stockholm-based, Irish soccer hero Mark O'Sullivan has taken a kick at music. His bag is a rich, chill trip-hop scenario--surprisingly devoid of sampled terrace chants. He'll be DJing at Newtown on Friday, Oct. 26, and doing the live thing at Club Soda on Oct. 27.



Adham Shaikh: Anyone familiar with the Interchill label will know about Shaikh, one of Canada's leading figures in ethno-tronica. Shaikh can be counted on for a blissful yet grounded and engaging hybrid of exotic spirituality and solid-state machine muzik. He's at Club Soda on Friday, Oct. 26.



Shakedown: Break out the fridge box! From Lausanne come the Swiss DJ brothers Seb K and Mandrax (horse tranks--aw, yeah!), housifying the old-school, wild-style, dayglos-'n'-checkers b-boy vibe. They're tireless, cutting loose at Jingxi on Friday, Oct. 26, and at both Club Soda and Sonic on Oct. 27.

Check Listings for complete show info